The assassination on Thursday of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has sent stock markets falling and boosted prices for oil and gold. The main index on the New York Stock Exchange fell 192 points or 1.4% while prices of government bonds rose.

Britain has yet to decide whether it will claim Antarctic territory sea bed but the UK remains and will remain fully committed to environmental protection of Antarctica, following on the spirit of the Antarctic Treaty one of the great successes of international relations in the last fifty years, said British Ambassador in Argentina John Hughes.

Colombia agreed on Wednesday to allow Venezuelan aircraft to land in the country to pick up three hostages held for years by leftist guerrillas, including a child born in captivity. Peace commissioners from five countries including Argentina's former president Nestor Kirchner will be involved in the operation.

In its end of the year summing up Brazil's government managed oil corporation Petrobras announced Wednesday it has set another daily oil-production record in Brazil: 2.238,000 barrels, a mark only eight companies in the world have reached.

World Trade Organization director Pascal Lamy said Brazil had managed to impose its agenda in the current global trade liberation discussions and trusted that the Doha Round talks will be finalized in 2008.

Uruguayan authorities this week arrested, and forfeited the cargo of a longliner which docked in Montevideo and allegedly did not have the necessary documentation to prove it was flagged in the Pacific island of Vanuatu.

Uruguayan emergency teams are working this weekend round the clock to clean the sandy beach of the country's most exclusive sea-resort which suffered the consequences of an oil spill of an estimated 15.000 liters of crude.